European identity Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Innerhalb der radikalen Rechten in Europa lässt sich zunehmend eine ideologische Verschiebung weg von exklusiven Nationalismen hin zum exklusiven ‚Zivilisationismus‘ feststellen. Dabei werden im Rückgriff auf historische Ereignisse und Entwicklungen Mythen und Konzeptionen Europas geschaffen, die das Potenzial bergen, eine rechtsradikale paneuropäische Identität zu begründen. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht und vergleicht die mythischen Konstruktionen Europas durch rechtsradikale Akteur:innen in Polen und Deutschland. Dabei werden Publikationen ins Auge gefasst, die ideologisch im Bereich zwischen Nationalkonservatismus und Rechtsextremismus angesiedelt sind. Der zugrundeliegende gemeinsame Nenner der Europakonzeptionen ist dabei insbesondere eine binäre politische Geografie eines zu verteidigenden, christlichen Europas als ‚Eigenem‘ und eines monolithisch begriffenen, bedrohlichen Islam als ‚Fremdem‘. In diesem Zusammenhang hat sich die Schlacht vom Kahlenberg 1683 – die Verteidigung Wiens gegen ein osmanisches Heer – zu einem Erinnerungsort der radikalen Rechten entwickelt. Die lokalen geschichtspolitischen Aneignungen durch deutsch-österreichische und polnische rechtsextreme Aktivist:innen stehen im Fokus der abschließenden Untersuchung, die nach dem Potenzial dieser Erinnerungspraxis für eine transnationale Konstruktion europäischer Identität fragt.

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- European identity, Collective Identity, Politics of History, Europa

This study focuses on the European Union’s (EU) discursive construction, and representation in the process of its enlargement. It problematizes the presently common tendency of doing so in ways which portray EU expansion as an expansion of Europe. At issue are thus practices conflating and equating the EU and Europe which pervade much of related academic, political and public debates and discourses, and so structure how we know of and imagine enlarging EU. Embracing post-structuralist and discourse-theoretical analytical and interpretative framework, this work points to the political character of representing the EU in this and, for that matter, any other fashion. Pursuit of this assertion necessitates a ‘step back’ from, and critical consideration of mainstream political and scholarly presuppositions concerning the Union and its enlargement in their arbitrariness. The very problematization of practices equating the EU and Europe, or of their allied ‘Europe-building’ concept of ‘European identity’, is conceivable and ‘meaningful’ only once we admit that these are not politically innocent components of an ‘objective’ grasp on ‘present’ or ‘emergent’ social realities in Europe and the EU but instead ‘merely’ value-laden interpretative possibilities biased in favour of the EU-official federalist integration project. Anticipating a divergence in conceptions and portrayals of the Union by senior EU members, elite and institutions on the one hand, and the new post-communist Member States on the other, this study examines national discursive spaces in the so-called Visegrad countries. On the basis of this extensive empirical enquiry, it reports rather distinctive understandings of the EU/European integration therein, affirming thus the suspected dissonance from the EU mainstream. They are attributed to several factors, considerations and concerns which are posited to be very likely shared more widely among post-communist member countries. The Visegrad societies’ conceptions of the EU and of its relation to Europe converge on a number of crucial points. These can be seen and interpreted as combining into a latent alternative European integration project which envisions persisting primacy of national identifications and maintenance of the current social and political organization of European space. The EU is conceived of as enlarging common political superstructure of Europe of nations and their states rather than a certain culture-bound, ‘thicker’ community of ‘post-national’ subjects of a ‘pan-European’ federal entity with centre in Brussels. The study challenges in this context the prevalent political and scholarly tendency to reduce debates on and contention over the character and future of European integration to a binary conflict between the so-called ‘Euroenthusiasts’ vs. ‘Eurosceptics’. Building on insights of Lacanian psychoanalysis as deployed by discourse theorists, it suggests that it may be precisely the suppressed democratic conflict of competing visions and projects of European integration which greatly contributes to the lacking popular identification with the process and the EU, and prompts some ‘obscene’ or more ‘excessive’ expressions of discontent with it.

- by Pavel Senderák
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- European Studies, European integration, European Foreign Policy, European Union
- by Łukasz Moll
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- Social Movements, Social Theory, European Studies, Political Philosophy

The European Union (EU) has closely correlated different aspects of the peace process in Bosnia with progress towards European accession. The ‘power of attraction’ of EU membership would presumably induce the Bosnian authorities to accept the adaptation costs of political and economic transformation. However, the Europeanisation approach has not produced the expected results. The track record of the EU’s policies towards Bosnia represents a paradigmatic case of what would happen if almost nothing works as efficiently as in the case of the countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007. The article investigates the causes of EU policy failure in Bosnia and claims that the EU has not effectively responded to three challenges: 1) adjust the process to the needs of an ethnically divided post-war state; 2) preserve the credibility of accession conditionality, and 3) convey the proper messages on how to comply with EU rules. Therefore, the article argues for a more cohesive and consistent EU approach towards Bosnia.

- by Bernhard Forchtner
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- European History, European Studies, Museum Studies, Memory Studies

This article contributes to the theoretical and methodological discussion on textual-contextual analysis in political communication and media research. It argues that taking into consideration both text and context throughout an analysis of the process of production enables the observation of the relation between the social and the linguistic. It opens up a non-deterministic perspective for the analysis of the above relation. The article rests upon an empirical study on the production of discourses for the campaign of European Parliament elections. The use of such a multilevel approach adds important elements to the research findings, particularly in terms of showing on the one hand how power relations within ‘Europarties’ results in the construction of common European identities in different European Union (EU) states, and on the other hand how professionalization of political communication reinforces discursive dissimilarities between parties of the same ideological family in different EU states.

- by Bahar Rumelili
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- Constructivism, European identity, European Union foreign policy
- by Matthias Kaelberer
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- Political Science, National Identity, European identity, German Politics
- by Olaf Asbach
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- European identity, Europe

This article aims to give a broader understanding of Lithuanian music’s contribution into the formation and transformation of historical and cultural images of and narratives about European identities after the end of the Cold War. Based on a new post-historical approach to the description of history and culture ‘in many different voices’, it is intended to explore post-communist musical imagination in Lithuania and its international reception through analysis of assembled case studies and musical criticism. In addition, it is aimed to discuss how individual artistic expressions of belonging to or exclusion from the European past and present were included or rejected into artistic discourses and cultural exchange on both sides of the ‘Velvet Curtain’, a metaphor for the post-communist state, that is, an invisible yet palpable divide, which separated “Old Europe” and “New “Europe” in the period of eastern enlargement of the European Union at the turn of the 21st century.

- by Ruta Staneviciute
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- Music History, European integration, Music and Politics, European identity
- by Jiří Přibáň
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- Anthropology, Political Science, European identity, Constellations

В статье, приуроченной к выборам в Европарламент, автор, широко привлекая данные социологических исследований, рассматривает проблемы и перспективы формирования общеевропейской идентичности. Критически анализируются различной природы основания и системообразующие компоненты таковой идентичности. В итоге автор приходит к выводу о том, что речь следует вести отнюдь не о поступательном развитии процессов общеевропейской консолидации, а скорее об исчерпании потенциала и побудительных мотивов такового движения.
In his article, timed for the elections to the European Parliament, the author, drawing widely the data of sociological studies, considers problems and prospects of the formation of common European identity. Foundations, as well as systemic components, - of different nature - of the said identity are critically analyzed in the article.

- by Grigory Vaynshteyn
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- Multiculturalism, Immigration, European identity

Comunicare l'Europa è un obiettivo strategico e sempre più funzionale a ridisegnare il futuro equilibrio della sfera sovranazionale, a fronte dell'emergere di sentimenti antieuropeisti e nuovi nazionalismi che minano le basi dell'identità europea. Come comunicano oggi le istituzioni europee? Che ruolo svolgono i media digitali? Con quali modalità si esprime la partecipazione dei cittadini nello spazio comunitario? Il volume risponde a queste domande, focalizzando la riflessione sull'accresciuto impatto della comunicazione dell'ue nei diversi e variabili flussi che traggono origine dall'attività istituzionale svolta dagli organi rappresentativi centrali e nazionali e dall'informazione prodotta dai media. Uno scenario contrassegnato da armonie e disarmonie, in cui la dimensione specifica della comunicazione pubblica si configura come parte essenziale del processo di costruzione della governance comunitaria. Il libro si propone come un utile strumento di approfondimento per studenti universitari, studiosi, esperti del settore e per quanti operano nell'ambito delle istituzioni nazionali ed europee per favorire la comunicazione dell'ue. Lucia D'Ambrosi è ricercatrice presso il Dipartimento di Scienze politiche, della Comunicazione e delle Relazioni internazionali dell'Università di Macerata, dove insegna Comunicazione pubblica e open government. I suoi interessi di ricerca sono rivolti allo studio dei rapporti tra cittadini e istituzioni in Italia e in Europa, in una prospettiva di valorizzazione della dimensione partecipativa. Tra le sue ultime pubblicazioni: Giovani oltre la Rete (Bonanno, 2012), Dal comunicare al fare l'Europa (curato con A. Maresi; Eum, 2016). Per Carocci editore ha pubblicato, con M. V. Giardina, Amministrazione pubblica e partecipazione (2006).

Based on fifteen months of fieldwork with television and new media producers at the transnational "European" public television channel, ARTE, this article describes the ways in which staff are in the midst of reimagining the channel's "audience." On the one hand, staff continue to understand television audiences as primarily national, and only nationally coherent; on the other hand, ARTE's audiences are understood to be fast-dispersing as a result of new broadcast technologies and streaming web content. To reach dispersing audiences, and to better articulate its programming across borders, ARTE has partly shifted its efforts toward regathering its public through international events, festivals, and other off-screen engagements where its viewers become differently coherent and knowable. The article argues that such a strategy re-emplaces "fans and followers" of ARTE in ways that might foster collective identifications in ways that may be literally re-placing those engendered by traditional public broadcasting.

- by Damien Stankiewicz
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- European Studies, Anthropology, Media Studies, Television Studies

What are the myths of Europe? This article provides the conceptual framework through which this question may be approached. It begins by defining myth in such a way as to distinguish it from other forms of political myths. From here, the relationship between mythical and historical narratives is analyzed via a study of how the main narrative cores through which Europeans have perceived themselves have worked in different periods and contexts as both. It concludes with a more detailed analysis of some of the icons that convey the myths of Europe.

- by Chiara Bottici
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- Narrative, Identity (Culture), Identity politics, Symbolism

The Time We Share is a book that has been structured like a play, outlining the themes that have featured in the Kunstenfestivaldesarts over the past two decades. It attempts to provide a lasting record of its ephemeral artistic practices, as well as open up the past to the future. Like a reference work, it invites readers to think about how the performing arts reflect and shape a society. Through a number of different viewpoints, The Time We Share includes projects that have left their mark on the first nineteen editions of the festival. It consists of a large number of new contributions by creators and theorists who think about the world from a performing arts perspective. Some of the themes tackled in this publication are also being explored during three study days: periods of reflection comprising talks, workshops, projections and encounters – on the living memory of the performing arts, on the time we share inside and outside theatre.

- by Daniel Blanga Gubbay and +1
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- Cultural Studies, Performing Arts, Theatre Studies, Censorship

Although history textbooks are highly revealing sources of what is considered worthy of being included in collective memory, they only tell half the story. The study of the non-official "parallel pantheons" of popular culture also contributes signifcantly to understanding patterns of perception and self-perception as well as mental representations of "Europe". This articles focuses on the "popular maps" of Europe that soccer has drawn over the last half-century and hints at the myths of cultural communality that underpin them. It appears that while soccer represents a somewhat ambiguous metaphor for contemporary Europe, it can also supply interesting insights into the emergence of horizontal bonds between Europeans.

- by David Ranc
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- Football (soccer), Popular Culture, European Union, Soccer

As Derrida suggests in the opening pages of The Other Heading, the question of Europe is both “a question that will always be of current interest” and the product of the pressure exerted by a particular imminence. The question, and the response to this question — what is Europe? — always refers both to the ever-present (the essential Europe), the particular or contingent (Europe as it is), and demands an equation or conciliation of the two. In the two decades since the publication of Derrida’s text, the question of Europe has been promoted by the apparent crisis of an engagement with two imminent Others: in the form of the seemingly permanent presence of Muslim migrants and demands by Turkey to gain membership in Europe. In response to these Others, a dual and seemingly contradictory definition of Europe has emerged — Europe as secular and Christian. Europe is secular in relation to its Muslim migrants, and Christian in the face of secular/Muslim Turkey. Within this dualistic definition, often voiced by the same figures, no contradiction, excess or difference is permitted. Instead, a socio-historical paradigm in which Christianity and the secular form a necessary and symbiotic relationship is evoked. This chapter will investigate this response to the imminent question of Europe and suggest that Derrida’s notions of Europe as difference-to-oneself, of the other heading, and the other of the heading, permit an opportunity to re-evaluate the relationship between Europe, Christianity and the secular, and open new possibilities for a Europe to come.

The EU sees itself as a beacon of LGBT-friendliness and seeks to promote these norms in its external relations. However, such identity claims and norm promotion are inherently political and should be critically examined as such. Taking a relational approach, this article conceptualises and examines the Othering processes within the EU enlargement to highlight the political nature of what is often described as a technocratic. Through exploring the triangulation of the EU enlargement, Othering processes, and crises, it is argued that 1) the use of LGBT rights as a measure of Europeanness is based on a longer tradition of defining the EU’s symbolic boundaries, but that 2) it is in perceived moments of crisis that the EU redraws and strengthens the boundaries between the Self and the different type of Others through changing combinations of Othering mechanisms. Finally, the article also argues that LGBT rights promotion is not only a tool in constructing the EU’s identity but also a source of an identity crisis, as is shown by the rise of anti-gender politics.

- by Koen Slootmaeckers
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- European Studies, Gender and Sexuality, LGBT Issues, European Union
- by Laura Eigenmann
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- Social Policy, Human Rights, Gender and Sexuality, LGBT Issues

“Our European film culture (...) is specific, full of local colours and tastes, of accents and languages. It celebrates diversity, even more so: It keeps cultural diversity alive!” (Wim Wenders, 2010). This paper looks at the way cultural diversity is portrayed in the movie L’auberge espagnole, Cédric Klapisch’s 2002 movie about student experience in the ERASMUS exchange Program, we pose the question of how contemporary European cinema relates to intercultural identity and diversity in Europe.

- by Pedro Corga
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- Cultural Studies, Social Identity, Cultural Identity, European identity

Kwame Anthony Appiah (London, 1954) is one of the most renowned philosophers of contemporary thought. His work in the field of ethics and moral reach diverse subjects as sexual orientation, nationalism, social discrimination on ethnic or religious reasons and responsibility of governments and international organizations in development and poverty eradication.

The European Union has long sought to bolster its resonance with the peoples of Europe. Particularly over the last twenty years, major institutional and policy reforms have been accompanied by attempts to mould a united European citizenry. Constitutional patriotism has been seized upon by many in the EU as a potential identity building mechanism in an entity that is neither a state nor a nation. However, the attempt to take the doctrine out of its original context (post-war West Germany) has not succeeded, as the history of the failed Constitutional Treaty attests. The jurisprudence of the German Constitutional Court shows that constitutional patriotism can be deployed in support of the identity and values of the democratic state. Yet, this only reinforces the doctrine’s limitations at the supranational level, as the prospects of closer political union are circumscribed by the constitutional boundaries drawn by member states.

- by Nicole Scicluna
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- European Union, European identity, Constitutional Patriotism

In this paper I argue that European Union can't help giving itself a kind, even if light post-modern constitutional frame. Among the different dynamics of integration inside the European Union, I'll focus on the conceptual alternatives that currently dominate the social science debate, which can be divided in the conceptual pairings neo-federalism and intergovernmental voluntarism. The first, the neo-federalism, refers to the dynamics that envisages the intentional establishment of a political order for all of Europe, oriented towards the fulfillment of shared values and standards (J. Habermas). The second, the intergovernmental voluntarism, analyzes functionalist dynamics driven by national and sectoral interests or contractual compromize, wherein progress is made through cooperative tactical moves that cumulatively fulfill emergent functional necessities. I conclude suggesting a kind of post-modern constitution-frame, grounded on European and cosmopolitan ethical perspectives. Among the models that are on offer it seems to me the one most likely to be well equipped to face the challenges of 21st.

- by francesco tampoia
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- European Studies, Political Philosophy, Jurgen Habermas, European Union
- by Laurent Licata and +1
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- Social Representations, Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, Collective Memory, European identity

This paper first draws attention to the scant literature in population geography on international student migration, or ISM. Yet students comprise an important element in global and European population mobility, especially of highly skilled movements. This study is set within the context of intra-European ISM and looks specifically at the ‘Year Abroad experience’ which has been subsidised over the past 15 years by the Erasmus and Socrates programmes. Empirical data come from questionnaire surveys to three groups of University of Sussex students, surveyed during 2000–01. The main survey was a large postal survey to graduates who had spent a year abroad (YA) in another European country as part of their Sussex degree. This questionnaire was designed to test two sets of hypotheses: firstly that the YA had given students/graduates a more ‘European’ identity or consciousness, and a greater insight into European issues; and secondly that YA graduates would be more likely to pursue their subsequent career/migration paths in continental Europe. These hypotheses were tested against a control sample of Sussex graduates who had not been on a YA, matched by degree type and time of graduation. A third sample was undertaken with second-year undergraduate students about to embark on their YA, in order to test pre- and post-YA perspectives. The results broadly confirm the research hypotheses, although with a variety of nuances and outcomes.

- by Enric Ruiz-Gelices
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- European integration, Erasmus, International Students, European identity

In this paper, the ‘Frame Problem’ in AI is mobilized as a trope in order to engage the ‘question’ concerning the inclusion and/or exclusion of Islam (and Muslims) from European – and, more broadly, ‘Western’ – society. Adopting a decolonial perspective, wherein body-political, geo-political and theo-political concerns are centered, the meaning and applicability of categorical dichotomies such as ‘religion’ and ‘politics’ and their relationship to the historical entanglement of ‘religion’ and ‘race’ in the formation of the modern world are interrogated in the context of understanding the nature of the relationship between Islam and Europe / ‘the West’. It is argued that the tendency within Western liberal democratic discourses to (1) frame the problem of Islamophobia and ‘the Muslim question’ in terms of misrepresentation – that is, misinformation, disinformation and ‘distortion’ of the flow of information – and (2) frame the issue of “Islam and Europe / ‘the West’” in terms of inclusion and/or exclusion of the members of a ‘religious’ minority into a post-modern, post-Christian / ‘secular’ polity circumvents disclosure of the violent historically-constituted structural background or ‘horizon’ against which such ‘options’ are generated. The essay concludes by sketching some possible decolonial responses to this critical and existentially-problematic state of affairs.

- by Syed Mustafa Ali
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- Race and Racism, Race and Religion, European identity, Islamic History
- by Tuuli Lähdesmäki
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- Cultural Heritage, European identity, Cultural Diversity, EU Cultural Policy

Abstract
Europeana is a large project funded by the European Union with the goal to digitize all of Europe's heritage and to make it publicly available for everyone. One of the goals of the European Union is to construct a European identity with the use of cultural heritage. In this thesis I take a closer look at the Europeana project in relation with the EU's cultural policy and the idea of constructing an identity with the use of archives and heritage. The goal of this thesis is twofold. The first is to discuss why and how the European Union uses cultural heritage to promote and construct a European identity. Second, I will discuss how different European countries are constructing their own national identity within a European context. By studying the attitude of six contributing Western countries towards the European Union and the ways they contribute their national heritage to Europeana, I hope to get a better understanding about how both nations and Europeana deal with this heritage and how it can help constructing a European identity.
This study shows that the European Union's cultural policy, with the goal to construct a European identity, uses the same strategies as nations. By adopting symbols like a 'European national anthem' and a standardized passport, the European Union wants to become more present in the everyday life of its citizens. However, the European Union can not be compared to a state because of its immense diversity and the fact that its borders can not be defined. The country research shows big differences between the amount and types of material that is contributed to Europeana. This is not necessarily related to the attitude of the country towards the European Union.
The theoretical analysis combined with the study of the European Union and the country research, has led to a number of conclusions. First of all, the European Union should not try to become a 'United States of Europe'. The European identity consists out of the variety of all the different states in it and is constantly changing. The EU must try to show its ‘unity in diversity’ and the Europeana project is more than suitable for this since it combines all of Europe’s heritage. Second, The current interface of Europeana is not able to show the cultural objects in a European context. When an object is clicked, it is shown individually on the website of the contributing institution. This way, the European context is not present. Europeana can achieve this with the help of experts who can use the primary and secondary sources in the Europeana database to create new insights in the history of Europe. The last conclusion is the fact that the Europeana project fits perfectly in the cultural goals of the European Union. Because of its role as an aggregator of aggregators, it can also very easily adopt new institutions, aggregators and even new members countries. This allows Europeana to show the diversity and commonalities of the European culture, as well as new stories and insights in the history of the world. This way Europeana can become the representation of the diversity that unites Europe.

- by Joris Pekel
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- Cultural Heritage, Cultural Politics, European identity, Digital Heritage

The idea of an authentic Greek national cinema and the notion of Greekness have been passionately and recurrently debated by filmmakers, critics and scholars alike, while inspiring the creation of important films. However, despite being local and national in various ways, Greek cinema did not grow in isolation but has always been in dialogue with international developments. This chapter illustrates how a new and distinctive emphasis on the European, the transnational and the cosmopolitan has gradually become an overarching and, in my view, the most representative characteristic of Greek film culture of the past ten years. It focuses on how different levels of transnationalism (political, cultural, industrial, textual) helped redefine Greek cinema and reintroduce it in the domestic and international markets. It thus provides a contextualising overview of the flourishing post-2008 Greek film culture aiming to briefly explore its major trends and patterns. By doing so, the discussion points to how these trends Europeanise and transnationalise the Greek experience, secure international funding and address non-national audiences, while simultaneously renegotiating national identity. In the process, issues regarding (co-) production, circulation and consumption practices, as well as critical and audience reception, are also considered.

- by Maria Chalkou
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- European Cinema, Mobility/Mobilities, Transnationalism, European identity
- by Zlatan Krajina
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- Cultural Studies, Human Geography, European Studies, Media Studies
- by Jelena Subotic
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- European integration, Contemporary History, Yugoslavia, Croatian History

A radical change is needed in the European policies, after the upcoming 2019 elections of the European Parliament. The pervasive structural changes in the economy and the development of the new material and immaterial needs by the citizens indicate the need of an appropriate investment strategy at the European scale. The macroeconomic, monetary and public budget policies of the European Union have aimed only at the financial stability. Therefore, the European Union should adopt a third policy instrument: a modern “industrial policy”, promoting material and intangible investments, innovation, a diversification to new productions, qualified employment and an improvement of the quality of life of the European citizens. European interventions should focus on those goods and services, that have a specific “European added value” and respond to the emerging needs by the European citizens for healthy food, housing, mobility, culture and leisure, education and health and social services, environmental sustainability and quality of life. The document indicates that a modern evolutionary perspective implies new and more effective policy guidelines aiming at a medium-term development, which are different from the traditional theoretical antinomies aiming at static optimization. It also underlines that the three "republican principles" of freedom, equality and fraternity can be interpreted in an innovative way in the perspective of a modern knowledge society and can guide a new economic policy capable to insure a wide consensus at European level. The authors of this document are: Riccardo Cappellin, Enrico Ciciotti, Maurizio Baravelli, Raffaele Barberio, Leonardo Becchetti, Marco Bellandi, Fiorello Cortiana, Fiorenzo Ferlaino, Franz Foti, Gioacchino Garofoli, Enrico Marelli, Carlo Pescetti, Luciano Pilotti. Experts sharing this document can communicate it to: cappellin@economia.uniroma2.it. Other contributions of the Discussion Group “Growth, Investment and Territory” are available at the link: http://economia.uniroma2.it/dmd/crescita-investimenti-e-territorio/

- by Riccardo Cappellin and +3
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- Macroeconomics, European integration, Sustainable Development, European Union
- by Diana Petkova
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- Sociology, Cultural Studies, Social Psychology, Intercultural Communication
- by David Engels
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- Christianity, Self and Identity, Sustainable Development, Identity (Culture)

This thesis examines the construction of ‘European identity’ in the discourses of members of European Alternatives (EA), an association of citizens which characterizes itself as committed to the grassroots construction of a better society ‘beyond the nation-state’.
By taking bottom-up and transnational perspectives, this study intends to fill a gap in the field of Critical Discourse Studies that seems to have largely underestimated the value of social action and the need to move away from ‘methodological nationalism’ in conceiving of how Europeanness is transformed and enacted.
The study applies the Discourse Historical Approach (Wodak 2001) to a corpus of data comprising of four focus groups and nine individual interviews with EA members from 10 different branches across Europe.
The results suggest a complex and very dynamic picture of how European identities are constructed, challenged and transformed by members who, typically, adopted strategies of dismantling of nationhood, and strategies of ‘imagining’ new communities, spaces and social orders.
Two key linguistic features conspicuously drive the members’ discourses of ‘belonging to Europe/being European’. One is the metaphorical scenario of spatial dynamics that, by and large, makes sense of the ‘European space’ as unbounded and interconnected with the world and whereby the European society is seen as progression and expansion of an ‘imagined’ community towards certain cosmopolitan ideals. The second element is the indexicality of transnationalism and Europe, two terms that members invested with a range of meanings including ideals of democracy, diversity, and equality but that were also constructed through the recontextualisation of historical discourses of nationhood.
This thesis thus suggests that, for EA members, the transformation of Europeanness is not a linear process (as for example some theories of the
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‘Europeanisation’ of society would have it) but, rather a dialectic one which relates to one’s situatedness within temporal, spatial, and social dimensions and which is achieved via multiple and dynamic identification processes with different communities of relevance.

As Europe is facing its most severe crisis since the end of World War II Second World War, populist nationalism is on the rise again all over the continent. Parties like the AfD, Ukip, the Dutch Party for Freedom or Front National refer to nostalgic imaginaries of their respective countries, while emphasizing the divisive character of national idiosyncrasies. Simultaneously, a shared European heritage and cultural values are mobilized as uniting factors against a shared Other: Islam. These constructions of both, disjunctive and shared European pasts, however obliterate rather forgotten memories of its origins – memories of colonialism and fascism. By referring to the German context in particular, and by drawing on and expanding Homi Bhabha’s conception of national temporalities, this article argues for a melancholic character of Europe in its relationship to the past – a Europe that is nostalgic for its lost Empire(s) and anxious about its fragile territorial as well as ideological borders. Giving the example of the popular song “Wir sind Wir (Ein Deutschlandlied)” by Paul van Dyk and Peter Heppner, utilized as its anthem by the German AfD in its 2015 election campaign, I will exemplify how the unresolved past is tantamount to the present, both on a national as well as the European level.

- by Melanie Schiller
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- European Studies, Popular Music, Nationalism, Populism

The great conversation about America that took place in European letters throughout the nineteenth century was characterized by a tendency towards polarization and routinely cast the NewWorld either as a “dream” or a “nightmare” (Arendt). This polarization was due in part, especially in the first half of the century, to the relative scarcity of reliable information about the United States. Yet the main reason was that writers and intellectuals tended to approach America strictly in Eurocentric terms, perceiving this country, not in its own right, but as a foil for political and social issues within a European setting; those with a liberal outlook, for example, tended to extol America as a way of implicitly criticizing the prevailing conditions in Europe, whereas conservatives, for the opposite reason, often opted for a strongly dismissive attitude. In the absence of sustained, dispassionate enquiry, the European image of America, not least in the context of fictional literature, remained a battleground of opposing mythologies, pitting enamored accounts of American freedom and authenticity against glum visions of moral and cultural decay.

- by Jesper Gulddal
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- European Studies, Nineteenth Century Studies, Modern Drama, Norwegian Literature

A probable lead seal of the historically important Umayyad governor of al-Andalus ´Abd al-Raḥmān ibn ´Abd Allāh al-Ghafīqī. (26/04/2022, added notes 15 &17)
Twice governor of al-Andalus, 102/ 721 & 112-114/ 730-734.
This seal would be of his second militarily very active governorship up to his death in the battle of Poitier.
Keywords:
Poitier, Aquitaine, Charles Martel, Duke Eudo, ´Abd al-Raḥmān al-Ghafīqī, Munnuza, Cerdanya, Franks, Septimania, Early Islam.

- by Tawfiq Ibrahim توفــيق ابراهــيم and +1
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- Medieval History, Medieval Studies, Al-Andalus, European identity